Bittersweet
by DaPokemonMadster
Summary: What was supposed to be a simple geist hunt for team CFVY turns into something much worse when they arrive late to the scene, and Velvet finds something unexpected in the rubble... a RWBY fic written for SketchHungry's Crosshares family au on tumblr!


**A/N: I dunno if any of you have seen SketchHungry's Crosshares family au on tumblr, but if you haven't I HIGHLY recommend you go check it out. It was so cute that I couldn't help myself and had to write a little something for it! Though, admittedly, this is a lot more angsty. Oops. Anyways, please enjoy!**

...

A geist in and of itself is a terrifying concept. A possession type grimm, that, if given the chance, can create a unfeeling, invincible body for itself out of its surroundings. Hunters able to take out a geist were always in high demand, for while a geist-hunt might be a routine mission for a trained warrior, one would always pose a massive threat to a defenseless civilian. The worst trait that a geist held was its ability to discern the weak from the strong, separate the lambs from the shepherds. As such, a small village in the wilds of Anima was the perfect target.

...

The call came in late. The details were scarce, and all Team CFVY knew for certain was that at least one geist was involved. By the time they arrived at the village, it was little more than smoldering ruins, laid to waste by the grimm. The geists had been clever, going right for the solitary, local huntsman before he'd even known they were there. The rest of the villagers had been easy prey.

"Alright, everyone. You know the drill. Fan out, search for survivors. Stay within eyesight of each other at all times." Coco barked, and the four of them started forward, hands on their weapons, senses on overdrive. Geists were tricky. They made their kills and then retreated, hiding and waiting for the right time to strike at those that came to observe the aftermath. Hunting one required the utmost caution.

Velvet inched forward, eyes scanning the smoking skeletons of houses, and blinking at the sunlight that streaked through the haze of smoky air. Her feet crunched in the ash, and her ears twitched, swaying this way and that in an effort to catch even the tiniest of sounds. Anything that might indicate a survivor. It was doubtful, she thought, stomach plummeting as she averted her eyes from what must have been a charred corpse. As a huntress, she should have been used to death. But it always shocked her to the core, leaving her with a feeling of being drenched in ice water, shivering uncontrollably. And really, would she consider it a good thing if she began feeling nothing for those that had perished? Towards lives she could have saved? Hard as it was, Velvet would always view empathy as a virtue. She felt something hot behind her eyes. _If only the call had come earlier... if we'd been faster then maybe_... No, no. She couldn't think like that. It wouldn't help the situation. For now she just had to focus on finding and helping anyone that might have lived through the attack. A sharp whistle had her looking over at Coco, who was signaling to a suspicious pile of rocks lying in the dead center of town. A likely suspect for a geist possession. Yatsu, Fox and Coco fanned out, carefully encircling it. Velvet made a move to join them, but stopped dead in her tracks, ears twitching violently.

"What is it, Velv?" Coco whispered, as loud as she dared. All the color had drained from Velvet's face. She had heard something. A heartbeat. Small and beating fast with fear or pain, she couldn't tell which. A child. Without a second thought, completely against protocol and her years of training, Velvet turned on her heel and ran towards the sound. An action based on instinct alone.

"Velvet! Wait!" Coco cried out, but her voice was drowned by the yells of concern from Yatsu and Fox, as the pile of rocks from before started shifting and rumbling. It had been a geist after all. In a split second decision, Coco dashed after her. She knew it was stupid to leave Fox and Yatsu to deal with the geist alone, especially since it had already assumed the shape of a giant rock golem. But it was even more stupid to leave one of her teammates by herself. At the very least, they should all have somebody to back them up.

She found Velvet frantically clearing rubble and burnt wood beams away from a small mound of debris. Her eyes were wider than Coco had ever seen them, and her ears were rigid, trained on a sound that only she could hear.

"Vel-"

"Just help me, Coco!" Velvet nearly shouted. Coco's mouth clapped shut. She'd never seen nor heard Velvet be so commanding. Immediately, she dove in to help. Under their combined efforts, the rubble was cleared within minutes, revealing a small well. At one point it had been filled in, leaving only a small, dry pit in the ground. It had miraculously kept its structure as fractured rafters and stone had come showering down around it, but what demanded more attention was what was curled inside.

Tiny, golden ears, so much like Velvet's, twitched feebly. A thin cry rattled the air, as the small child rolled onto her side, blinking at the sudden burst of light.

"Oh my.." Coco gasped. Velvet didn't say a word. Instead, she slowly reached down, wrapping her arms around the little faunus and pulling her out of the well.

"Is she injured?" Coco asked. Velvet shook her head mutely. The girl let out another cry, clutching at Velvet tightly. Coco slowly reached out, stopping just short of her, not quite daring to touch her.

The sole survivor.

Coco suddenly became acutely aware of how stupidly dangerous her situation had become. She'd just left half her team to face a geist alone. Not only that, but a geist that had already formed a body. Trained as they were, it was still difficult to muster up the brute strength to destroy a geist's body with just two people, and to make matters worse, they now had a child to keep safe. The only confirmed threat was the geist, but there was no telling if more grimm were on their way, or if.. there was only... the one...

A prickling sensation on the back of her neck was all the warning Coco got before something slammed into her side, and Velvet screamed as she was sent flying. Coco smacked into the ground, hard, her aura catching the brunt of the attack and bouncing her off the ground. She felt her aura strain, stretched to its limits with just one blow. Picking herself up off the ground, she turned to see a…

House?

The remains of one, at least. It took her a second to register what she was seeing. One of the skeleton houses that had been blown apart in the attack was _moving_. It was uprooting itself from its cement foundation, rafters like fractured ribs pointing accusingly at the smoke-stained sky, door creaking brokenly from its hinges like some lopsided mouth… it had hit her. And now it was going after Velvet. Creaking and shivering, the floorboards near the door wrenched themselves free, spilling out of the door to drag the giant, splintered mass of wood along the ground like some kind of freakish slug.

An entire house.

That's when Coco realized there was more than one geist.

Velvet's brows knit together. She placed the tiny faunus down behind her, reaching for the box strapped around her back. She scanned the broken mess inching towards her for any sign of the geist's mask, its only weakness.

"Velvet, get the kid out of here! We gotta get her to safety at all costs!" Coco yelled hoarsely. Velvet didn't respond, but the determined set of her jaw and her defensive, almost motherly position in front of the little girl told Coco exactly what she was thinking. There was no time to run, nowhere to go, and Velvet wasn't moving an inch. As the geist pitched its enormous, ungainly body at Velvet, shards of dishware and the shattered remains of furniture came spilling from the doorway and window frames like innards. Coco yelled, terrified that the glass would harm Velvet or the kid, but Velvet couched over the faunus girl, letting her aura take the blow for both of them. Then she turned back towards the geist, eyes flashing dangerously, suddenly illuminated by the glowing blue outline of a giant gatling gun that had seemingly apparated in her hands. Coco recognized the gun as a copy of her own weapon. With a fierce battle cry, Velvet opened fire at the geist. The flurry of bullets tore into its wooden body, sending it reeling backwards against the onslaught, splinters of wood littering the air.

Realizing the effectiveness of the attack, Coco hit the release on her briefcase, feeling the mechanisms whirr into place until she was holding her own gun. Under their combined fire, the geist's house body shuddered, making furrows in the scorched earth as it was forced backwards. A horrible, angry squeal bubbled up from within the house. Then the time on Velvet's copy ran out. Too late, Coco realized she wouldn't be able to stop the geist with just the fire from her gun.

She felt more than saw the geist rear back. Then it bucked forward, launching a jagged plank of wood straight for Velvet.

Coco didn't even stop to think.

She threw herself in front of the attack, hearing Velvet's scream echo in her ears. Time seemed to stop for a minute.

And then the beam struck.

For a moment, Coco felt nothing. But then with a painful wrenching in her gut, her aura shattered and searing pain blossomed across her face. She hit the ground and skidded across it, rolling over and over like a rag doll. Velvet hadn't stopped screaming. And now the cries from the little faunus girl joined in.

"Coco! _Coco_!" Velvet's shouts had changed. Before they had been simply terrified, and now they were full of some all-consuming rage. Coco blinked. She could barely see, blood swamping her vision and a painful weariness tugging at her consciousness. She tried to stagger to her feet, to no avail. She collapsed as soon as she tried to put weight on one, shaking arm. Through her hazy vision, she barely made out Velvet glowing with the blue light of a second summoned weapon. Except, it wasn't a weapon, not quite. Coco had only seen the likes of this once before, and that was on a night she tried hard to forget. Still, she recognized it as the giant, armor-clad arm that Weiss Schnee had summoned to protect Velvet all those years ago.

Coco's vision went black.

…

Velvet was still trembling when Coco woke up. She was pressed up against her leader in their shared hospital bed, the little faunus girl happily sleeping while snuggled up in her arms. The doctors had tried to take her away from Velvet the minute they'd reached the hospital, but the little girl hadn't allowed it. She had screamed as loud as she could, all the while her little hands curled into the front of Velvet's shirt. It had been clear that she had no intention of letting go. Velvet sighed deeply, then jumped as a hand began rubbing her back soothingly.

"Hey." A raspy voice came from behind her.

"C-Coco! You're awake!" She gasped, back going rigid.

"Yeah. Guess I got hit pretty bad, huh?" She laughed ruefully, and Velvet felt tears prick the corners of her eyes, "Wait, are you okay? Why are you in bed with me? And what happened to that kid?!"

Slowly, Velvet rolled over, turning to face Coco and revealing the little girl tucked snugly in her arms.

"She's fine, Coco. And I'm alright, too. Just a few bumps and bruises, really." The gashes in her skin were a little more serious than just 'bumps and bruises,' but they were nothing compared to the injury Coco had sustained. That seemed to be dawning on Coco as well.

Velvet watched sadly as Coco gently reached up to touch the bandage that covered half her face. The leader grimaced, her left eye finding Velvet's.

"How bad is it?" She asked in a low voice.

"They say… they say you won't be able to see out of.. out of your right eye anymore. And there will be a scar…" Velvet said quietly. Coco nodded grimly, running her hand once more over the bandage.

"What else happened? Where are Fox and Yatsu?" Coco asked.

"They're probably in the waiting room. Wanted to give us a little space for when you woke up… they're just fine. They managed to take out the first geist and got to us just in time… I was holding my own, but after you went down it was just a matter of time before the second one got me and this little one.' Velvet softly ran her thumb over the little faunus girl's cheek, still pudgy with baby fat.

"Coco, why would you do something so _stupid_?!" Velvet suddenly burst out, angry and sad and guilty all at the same time. "You nearly got yourself killed! And now it's my fault, you're gonna have a scar and be blind in one eye and it's all because I was too dumb not to listen to you and run away an-"

"Hey, hey now," Coco stopped her, placing a calming hand on Velvet's shoulder, "There wasn't much to be done. It was a dangerous situation. We didn't have all the details, nobody could've known there was a second geist. There was nowhere to run, anyway. Taking that blow was my choice, because in the heat of the moment I couldn't see any better way of protecting you two. And when it comes down to it, as the leader of team CFVY, it's my duty to protect my teammates at all costs. And as a _huntress_ , it's my duty to protect the innocent with my life. I was just doing my job, really." Coco shrugged. Velvet burst into tears, before leaning in to catch Coco off guard with a fierce kiss.

"Don't ever do that again! I don't care if you are leader - in fact, as leader you have to do a better job at keeping yourself safe, since you're so vital to the team! Promise me, tell me you won't do something like that ever again!" Velvet said when she pulled away. Coco simply gave her a cheeky smile.

"With our line of work, I don't know if I can keep that 'un. How about this; I'll promise to be a better leader, and work to keep all of us as safe as possible so that, with any luck, none of us will have to make that choice again?" Coco said, and Velvet simply huffed at the answer.

"That feels like a cop out."

"Take it as you will. But don't worry, despite appearances I really don't want to do something like that again. I gotta stick around, otherwise who else is gonna help you raise this kiddo?" Coco said, leaning in for a second kiss. Velvet sighed. She basked in the feeling of all of them being alive, and safe.

"Wait a sec, raise this kid? Us?" Velvet said, realizing the implications of Coco's statement.

"Well, yeah. She seems pretty fond of you. And I don't want to send her off to an orphanage or whatever. How old did they say she was?"

"The doctors estimate about eight months…" Velvet whispered, looking down at the sleepy bundle curled in her arms, "And… alright, I can't deny that I've been thinking about what it would be like to… be her mom." Coco grinned at Velvet's answer.

"So… what should we name her!? Maybe Vanilla or Cotton? Man, there are so many names." Coco immediately burst out, leaning over to better look at the baby. Velvet smiled sleepily, her eyelids beginning to feel heavy with weariness. The day had been long and terrifying, and had taken its toll on her emotionally as well as physically.

"Coco, go to sleep. We can discuss names tomorrow." Velvet yawned. She felt Coco make a tiny sound of agreement, before snuggling back into the pillows. Then she closed her eyes, and let sleep overtake her.

...

 **A/N: They end up naming the baby Honey. For more of this au (also if you want to see mamas Velvet and Coco interact with little Honey), please, PLEASE visit the creator's (SketchHungry) tumblr and look at their beautiful art! This story I wrote actually got a little debunked based on their version of how it happened, but I still had a lot of fun writing it!**


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